Republic of Mining

Kolyma Diaries: A Journey into Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – review – by Kapka Kassabova (The Guardian – April 3, 2014)

August 24, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/books/

Jacek Hugo-Bader has hitchhiked the length of the Road of Bones, on a pilgrimage to the land of gold and gulags

The 2,025 km-long Kolyma Highway in the far east of Russia is known as the Road of Bones because the thousands of gulag prisoners who died building it lie just beneath its surface. Jacek Hugo-Bader hitchhiked its entire length, from Magadan (which features in Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago) to industrial Yakutsk, in one of the most extreme landscapes on earth.

Polish journalist Hugo-Bader doesn’t do things by half: for his previous book, White Fever, he drove solo across Siberia from Moscow to Vladivostok in a modified UAZ-469 4×4. In winter. Mercifully, his Kolyma journey takes place in summer and autumn, but even during these months the ground retains a metre of permafrost, bears attack broken-down drivers in broad daylight, vodka is preferable but “highway liqueur” (radiator coolant) is acceptable and -60 is in Celsius, not Fahrenheit.

Here is a taste of a summer picnic by the mighty Indigirka river: “a black night, and the river is scary to look at – there are such a lot of ice floes coming down it. It’s rattling along like the Trans-Siberian express”.

Anglo American sells two Chilean mines to Audley for $300 million (Reuters U.K. – August 24, 2015)

August 24, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

Anglo American (AAL.L) is to sell two Chilean copper mines to investment firm Audley Capital for $300 million (£191.5 million), the company said on Monday, as it delivers its balance sheet to help combat a global slump in commodity prices.

Orion Mine Finance Group is principal co-investor with Audley for the open-pit Mantos Blancos and Mantoverde mines. The deal includes conditional future payments which could boost the eventual price tag by $200 million (£128 million), Anglo American said.

Following a review last year Anglo American said it would divest assets that did not meet its return criteria. The investment by Audley Capital was led by John Mackenzie, a former chief executive of Anglo’s copper business.

The potential follow-up payments are contingent on the copper price and also on whether the new investors decide to extend the sulphide life of the Mantoverde mine.

Banking sources had initially touted the mines as having a price tag of up to $1 billion.

[Sudbury, Canada] From barren rock to lush forests – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September 2015)

August 24, 2015

This article was originally published in the September 2015 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Restoring the Sudbury Basin to its original state

Delegates to the 6th Mining and Environment International Conference in Sudbury June 20 to 25 received an update on the Sudbury Regreening Program and were able to see for themselves the steady progress the city has made in reversing the devastating effects of early mining activity in the region.

For the first few decades of the program, regreening activity focused on the liming of barren lands, seeding them with a grass and legume mixture and planting a limited variety of trees.

However, a major rethink and broadening of the program was triggered by the release of the Sudbury Soil Study’s ecological risk assessment in 2009, noted Stephen Monet, manager of environmental planning initiatives for the City of Greater Sudbury.

“The ecological risk assessment basically told us that we still had a lot of work to do and that there were still a lot of biologically impoverished areas. That led Vale, Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations and the City to move forward with a Biodiversity Action Plan.”

Commodity Gauge Slumps to Lowest Since ’99 as China Roils Market – by Ranjeetha Pakiam (Bloomberg News – August 24, 2015)

August 24, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A measure of returns from commodities sank to its lowest since 1999 and shares in resource companies joined a global equity slump on concern that a slowing Chinese economy will exacerbate supply gluts.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 raw materials from oil to metals lost as much 2.2 percent to 85.8339 points, the lowest level since August 1999. Shares in miners and explorers from Glencore Plc to BHP Billiton Ltd. and Cnooc Ltd. tumbled while Brent crude fell below $45 a barrel for the first time since 2009.

“Sentiment is extremely negative across the commodity complex,” Mark Keenan, head of commodities research for Asia at Societe Generale SA in Singapore, said in an e-mail. “Markets are plagued by concerns of oversupply.”

Raw materials are in retreat as supplies outstrip demand amid forecasts for the slowest Chinese growth since 1990. The largest user of energy, grains and metals was much weaker than anyone expected in the first half of the year, according to Ivan Glasenberg, head of Glencore Plc, the world’s leading commodity trader.

In Minnesota, fight between mining and environment gets personal – by by Stephanie Pearson (Al Jazeera America – August 23, 2015)

August 24, 2015

http://america.aljazeera.com/

Projects that would bring much-needed jobs could also ruin irreplaceable freshwater resources

ELY, Minn. — It’s the kind of July day that Minnesotans fantasize about in the dead of winter. Puffball clouds float in a blue sky and daisies sprout under stately pines lining Spruce Road, the main artery of an old logging network deep in the Superior National Forest about 15 miles southeast of Ely.

Paul Schurke is bumping down a dirt road in a Dodge Ram pickup truck. He owns Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge with his wife, Susan, and is famous in these parts as the explorer who co-led the first dogsled expedition to the North Pole without re-supply in 1986.

The dirt track ends before it reaches the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the roadless, motorless, cellphone-towerless 1.1-million-acre ecosystem where nearly 250,000 visitors from around the globe annually pilgrimage to paddle a connected chain of more than 1,000 pristine lakes.

Every night they break camp on a forested shoreline to hear the cool northern breeze whisper through the pines and loons project their mournful calls over vast stretches of open water. Occasionally an emerald display of Northern Lights flickers in a sky entirely free of light pollution.

Why Is the EPA Cleaning Up Mines? – by Rhett Larson (Wall Street Journal – August 21, 2015)

August 24, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Mr. Larson is an associate professor of law at Arizona State University.

Private mining companies have already shown they are better equipped to deal with the mess.

Images of the bright-yellow Animas River in Colorado, fouled by millions of gallons of toxic wastewater accidentally released from an abandoned mine by contractors working for the Environmental Protection Agency last week, prompt a serious question: Why was the EPA even managing this waste in the first place? Mining companies that have the skills and experience to clean up such sites should be doing this work.

The abandoned Gold King Mine at the center of the EPA’s recent debacle is not unique. There are more than 557,000 abandoned hard rock mines in 32 states throughout the country. These sites often have been inactive for decades, and the responsible party either no longer exists or cannot be found. Abandoned mines can have devastating effects on the environment, and mismanaging them can lead to catastrophic spills like the one in the Animas River.

Acids, heavy metals and toxic sediments from these spills can persist for years, preventing use of the water and harming agriculture, fishing, wildlife and recreation.

Junior miners jump into medical marijuana, food service amid slump – by Euan Rocha, Nicole Mordant and Jim Regan (Reuters U.S. – August 23, 2015)

August 24, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO/VANCOUVER/SYDNEY – Many of the world’s junior miners are laying down their picks and shovels to start new ventures ranging from egg exporting to medical marijuana farming, as they as try to survive a crash in metals prices by shifting away from exploration.

Prices for copper, gold, iron ore, coal and almost every other metal have collapsed, stalling exploration work and hitting early stage miners particularly hard. These firms typically find the deposits that larger miners often then go on to acquire and develop into mines. But there’s scant demand for new sources of metal now.

Pivoting into other businesses has happened during mining funks in the past, including a spate of defections into the tech sector during the dotcom boom in the late 1990s. But now the concern is that when prices eventually do rebound, there will be fewer junior miners, and a reduced pool of new mine prospects.

“No one has any interest in a grassroots exploration project right now,” said Yari Nieken, chief executive of Chlormet Technologies, which has bought an e-cigarette company and has a license to grow medical marijuana pending.

Wales: Brecon Beacons is spectacular, but what sets this national park apart is its human history – by Amanda Ruggeri (Globe and Mail – August 13, 2015)

August 24, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

BRECON BEACONS, WALES – When our tour guide, a former miner, tells us that we’ll be descending 90 metres into the earth, no one in the group seems anxious. When we strap on headlamps – necessary accoutrements for navigating the lightless caverns far below – everyone takes it in stride.

But when he tells us we have to empty our pockets of anything with a battery, a few of us look surprised. “Sparks can come off watches or batteries because of the gases down there,” he explains. “You can’t bring anything like that down there.” Depositing my mobile phone in the bag he offers, I think to myself: Gases? What did I sign up for?

On the surface, much of this part of southern Wales is what you would expect, and hope, from a Welsh landscape: rolling hills and wild moors, market towns and crumbling castles. The area is dominated by Brecon Beacons, a 1,350-square-kilometre national park that twists with 225 km of rivers and peaks with mountains up to 886 metres tall. Sheep amble across bright-green hills, their coats splashed with blue and red.

B.C. mines minister hopes to soothe Alaskan fears after Mount Polley spill – by Tamsyn Burgmann (Canadian Press/CTV News – August 23, 2015)

August 24, 2015

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/

VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s mines minister says he’s aiming to ease Alaska residents’ fears that their region could be harmed by a disaster similar to the Mount Polley accident in the province’s Interior.

Bill Bennett met with mining representatives in Alaska last November, four months after a tailings dam burst and spilled 24 million cubic metres of waste into area waterways, including salmon-bearing rivers.

However, Alaskans living downstream from northwestern B.C. mines said Bennett ignored their worries about the potential for mining pollution flowing their way in the event of another catastrophe.

A year after the August 2014 spill, Bennett said he’s taking the lead from state officials who have arranged dozens of meetings with conservation groups and tribal associations.

Mine of the future will be digital – by Anine Vermeulen (MiningWeekly.com – August 21, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Over the next five years, the mining industry needs to work towards an understanding of what the industry will be like 50 years from now, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Mining Professor of mine surveying Fred Cawood tells Mining Weekly.

He notes that, regardless of the mining methods applied in future, one thing is certain – the mine of the future will be digital.

“The Wits digital mine has four phases and focusses on building a mine mock-up for teaching, learning and research; developing a smart mine laboratory hosting digital technologies inside the mock mine; monitoring an underground environment for improved mine design and processes; and integrating a digital mine into a digital city and communities.”

Cawood points out that although projects covering all phases have been implemented, only the first phase has been completed, with the second phase at an advanced stage. “Phases three and four are mostly conceptual and depend on further funding.”

South African Gold Miners Rally Most Since 1999 as Metal Rises – by Neo Khanyile (Bloomberg News – August 21, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa’s index of gold-mining stocks surged the most this week on record as the precious metal traded near a one-month high and the rand extended declines.

The five-member FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index climbed 2 percent to 1,022.93 by the close in Johannesburg, bringing its five-day gain to 28 percent. Pan African Resources Plc led the advance on Friday, adding 3.8 percent to bring its gain this week to 17 percent. AngloGold Ashanti was the best performer in the week, gaining 33 percent. Spot gold advanced 0.5 percent to $1.158 an ounce, the highest since July 13.

The precious metal has climbed 3.8 percent this week as investors scaled back bets on a Federal Reserve rate increase next month and a stock and currency sell-off in emerging markets spurred demand for safe assets. South African gold miners also benefit from a weaker rand because they pay costs in the local currency while selling their exports for dollars, helping the index to rally from a 15-year low on August 6.

“The gold stocks, particularly South African gold stocks, were undervalued, not only relative to the global peer group, but to the local mining index as well,” Richard Hart, director of equity research at Arqaam Capital SA Pvt Ltd., said from Johannesburg. “This has really been a recovery of some of that value.”

Iran Prepares to Lure Foreign Investors After Nuclear Deal – by Thomas Erdbrink (New York Times – August 21, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Sadjad Ghoroghi, for one, who runs a mining company in Zanjan in northwestern
Iran, says he had long dreamed of finding a foreign investor willing to help
expand his operations. Iran is thought to have rich deposits of zinc, copper
and gold, and experts say that mining has the potential to become a $60 billion
industry, equal in size to the country’s oil industry.(Thomas Erdbrink)

ZARRINABAD, Iran — When Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps took over the nation’s telecommunications monopoly in 2009, the move was denounced as another dark step in the hard-line military group’s seizure of the levers of power.

“It’s not just a matter of the Guards dominating the economy, but of controlling the state,” Alireza Nader, an expert on Iran and the co-author of a comprehensive RAND Corporation report on the Revolutionary Guards, said at the time.

Last month, however, the company, the Telecommunication Company of Iran, was put up for sale, as the Revolutionary Guards now seem more interested in cashing in on what Iranian leaders are hoping will be a flood of foreign investment if a nuclear deal with world powers gains final approval and sanctions are lifted.

Surviving the Chinese and euro storms – by John Redwood (Financial Times – August 21, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.ft.com/

I’m staying well away from commodities

We have just seen a perfect storm. Markets gave a strong warning to the bulls and underlined why many people chose balanced or cautious funds to limit sudden swings into loss on their investments. In recent weeks some markets have issued a timely reminder of why investment specialists usually recommend a spread of assets to limit your risks.

This summer has brought big falls in some markets. The Greek stock market closed for a month and then reopened much lower. Greek uncertainties took some of the shine off the better performance from euro area shares. The Brazilian market, the largest exchange and economy in Latin America, is down by more than 40 per cent over the past year.

The authorities there are trapped between recession and inflation, with crisis levels of interest rates. The domestic Chinese share market suddenly fell nearly 30 per cent after a phenomenal upwards run. Commodity markets continued their downwards moves after the oil rally of the spring.

The inability to buy and sell shares in Greece at all made investors realise how important continuous liquidity in markets is, and how much we rely on the ability to get out if we change our minds.

How SEC Chair Mary Jo White Gave Congolese Warlords Some Unexpected Help – by Zach Carter (Huffington Post – August 20, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Finally, some good news for brutal militias.

WASHINGTON — Warlords in the Democratic Republic of Congo got some help from two conservative judges on Tuesday, when a federal appeals court for the District of Columbia ruled against part of a key regulation on conflict minerals.

But they also got an unlikely assist from Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White, whose very agency was defending the rule before the court.

Armed militias in eastern Congo have long relied on the mining of tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold to finance more than a decade of violence, much of it targeting civilians. But militia access to mining wealth was dramatically curbed in 2012, when the SEC adopted a new regulation requiring U.S. companies to audit their supply chains for conflict minerals. The agency also required corporations to disclose the findings of those audits to consumers in simple language that explains whether their products are “DRC conflict free.”

Congress directed the SEC to write the rule as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

The roles of aviation in supporting mining – by Keith Campbell (MiningWeekly.com – August 21, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining depends on infrastructure – so much so that mining companies sometimes have to build and operate their own railways, ports and power stations in parts of the world in which such essentials are nonexistent or woefully inadequate. And those parts of the world tend to be rather isolated or remote. Which brings another form of infrastructure into play, one rarely thought of in relation to mining projects – aviation.

Aviation plays a key role in supporting mining around the world, and not just in areas lacking roads and railways. In places with good terrestrial infrastructure, but long distances, like South Africa, aviation is also most helpful to miners. There are many missions executed by aircraft, both fixed wing and rotary wing and now unmanned as well as manned, in support of the mining industry.

These include aerial surveying, aerial observation, the transport of staff to and from operations in remote or distant locations, the transport of key equipment to these mines and even the transport of precious metals and stones from the mines where they have been extracted to secure locations in major centres.